MEWikia[/url]]Cooperative multiplayer is a game mode that will be featured in Mass Effect 3, and marks the debut of multiplayer in the Mass Effect series. In this mode, up to four players can join together online and customize characters to fight on the front lines of the galaxy-wide war against the Reapers. Progress in co-op earns the player rewards in Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War that can be used to influence the outcome of Mass Effect 3's single-player mode.

Playing the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode requires an Online Pass.(Which is included when purchasing a new game.)

BioWare apparently did a really good job with the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. Reason enough to have a separate Catch-All to discuss all the different classes, races, maps, strategies and rewards.

You'll gain more skill points per level, leaving you with a maximum of 84 at level 20 and half of that at level 13.

This gives you several options to build your character, e.g. 4 skills on upgraded to 6 or 1 skill at 6 and the remaining ones at 5.

All your characters of the same class share an experience bar, meaning if your Human Soldier levels up, so will your Krogan or Turian one.

Even races unlocked a later point will start at the level of the other characters of the same class.

You can reset the talents of a character by either using a rare item from the Spectre packs or promoting it once it reaches level 20. This will reset all available characters of that class back to level 1.

Weapons and other equipment

Save your special Equipment for Silver and gold Runs. You will really need them there.

Engineers, Vanguards and Adepts trend to perform better when they can access their powers quicker. Many only Equip a Pistol because of this.

Enemies and combat

"Stun and Gun" Seems to be a particularly effective tatic in MP. Stasis, Overload, Shield Drain, and Cyroblast all Stun to some extent.

If a mob is going to melee you, use a quick melee attack to disrupt their wind up, following up with a heavy melee or other attack.

Krogran have a powerful melee attack that charges forward. It is a one shot kill for most regular enemies.

Keep your eyes open for turrets when fighting Cerberus! They can take characters down very quickly (I am looking at you Vanguards) and sit low to the ground. BTW. they can see through the Infiltrator's Tactical Cloak

Cerberus Guardians: The most common way to take out a Guardian is by shooting them through their shield's eyeslot or by flanking them. Some skills like Concussive Shot will cause them to stagger, but others like Pull and Stasis will cause them to drop their shield entirely. Alternatively, the uncommon "penetration" mod will allow you to damage them through their shields, but this tactic is generally impractical until you've upgraded the mod a few times as it greatly reduces damage to all targets.

Cerberus Phantoms: Never let an unrestrained Phantom get close as they have a one-hit kill with sufficient range to hit you through cover. An Asari Adept's Stasis skill can freeze them in place, and cold-based skills can slow them down significantly. If they can't find a nearby target they will often take cover for long periods, especially when they've lost their barrier: easy pickings for a sniper, provided they have an angle.

When dealing with Brutes and Banshees, try to move perpendicularly to the direction they are pointed (Strafe) and keep your distance, that tends to be the basis for keeping yourself alive in those encounters.

The Sabotage skill (Quarian Infiltrator) temporarily converts enemies to your side, after which you can either let them fight for you or get in a few free shots. It works on ALL Geth, Cerberus Atlus mechs, and Cerberus engineer turrets. Each successive use against the same enemy wears off faster, until the skill no longer works against that target.

The Stasis skill (Asari Adept/Vanguard) will freeze any enemy that doesn't have armor, including Cerberus Phantoms. It does a small amount of damage as well, which is sufficient to kill swarmers instantly. When faced with an armored enemy, an Asari Adept should use Warp instead, and follow it up with Throw to trigger a biotic explosion.

With Stasis skill (Asari Adept/Vanguard), Max it out in its AOE/Bubble form. It is infinitely more useful that way. It will trap people that walk into it. You can put it on a corner to trap Enemies taking cover on the other side, etc. It also helps with getting groups together for Biotic Explosions.

Charging weapons interact oddly with Tactical Cloak (all Infiltrators), in that they register a "shot" when you start charging but not when you actually fire. That means if you start charging while cloaked you will uncloak, but if you cloak while you're already charging you can fire your shot without losing stealth. I have no idea how Tactical Cloak damage bonuses play into that.

Upgrade packs or RNG, thou art a heartless wench

Recruit packs: There are people who tell you to never buy these. The reality is, all weapon unlocks, weapon upgrades, weapon mods and class unlocks are given out in randomly mixed booster packs. Anyone who has tried getting into a TCG knows that while seemingly everyone will find a Moxen in their first booster, while you desperately try to trade in a hundred mountain cards for another booster. When you start out, you want a good staple of guns and mods. After about 20 rounds of Bronze (about 1 character to level 20 and a second one to level 13ish), you will have made 300k credits, enough for 60 recruit boosters (instead of 5 Spectre packs), which will bring pretty most of your weapons to their maximum level of 10. With those, you will be equipped to jump in with every new class you want. Your alternative is shamefully staying in bronze with your level 20 Vanguard, because the highest weapon you have is a level 3 Katana (shotgun).

Veteran packs: Once you've gotten a feel for your two or three favorite classes, jump into Silver difficulty and start buying these (even with the money you make with your new low level characters, there’s nothing more to gain from Recruit packs). Buy these until you have a decent selection of mods and uncommon weapons, or at least the ones you see yourself using. That way you'll be able to adequately equip any class, and you're likely to still get one or two rare items just by chance.

Spectre Packs: When you can handle Silver difficulty well enough that you reliably complete the third and final objective (whether you can survive to extraction after that isn't as important). Alternately, when you are looking for rare or ultra-rare unlocks (see list below), these are the smarter investment.

All packs contain 5 random items or characters, most of which will be common (consumables for dire situations and higher difficulties). Recruit packs have a small chance for an uncommon or better. Veteran packs always have 1 unlock of at least uncommon quality. Spectre packs always contain 1 unlock of at least rare quality. So while it is possible to score a Black Widow in your first recruit pack, it's not probable. For what constitutes as common, uncommon and rare, see list below.

Collector Assault Rifle* (color is gold, but you have to have a code to unlock)

Asari Adept

Krogan Soldier

Krogan Sentinel

Quarian Engineer

Salarian Infiltrator

Drell Vanguard

Ultra Rare (Black/N7)

Black Widow

M-358 Talon

M-99 Saber

M-77 Paladin

M-11 Wraith

Javelin

Scorpion

On character unlocks: if you unlock a class race combination you already have, you will unlock additional appearance options for that character and gain a small amount of experience (12,500 for common, 25,000 for uncommon, 50,000 for rare).

More coming soon.

I’ll try to keep the OP up to date, but due to the post explosion nature of multiplayer threads on GWJ, this may be a tough task. Let me know (preferably by PM) if anything needs to be added.

Your multiplayer abilities are auto mapped into your hotbar, not to hotkeys, so remap your hotbar hotkeys and you remap the keybinds for your abilities. The mapping is shared with your single player game, so you need to make sure it makes sense in either context.

I would use Q and E for abilities, but I leave those with their default bindings for single player. Also, there is (stupidly) only 8 hotbar slots, so potentially useful keys (like my G-keys on my G15 keyboard) go unused. More hotbar space please, Bioware!

Anyway, this puts all my multiplayer abilities (and in single player, my Shepard's abilities) on the mouse, and makes the multiplayer consumables (and single player squad abilities) more easily used without removing my fingers from the movement keys.

And as has been noted, different health and shield values, too. I found in the demo, a Krogan Soldier has nearly as much in either shields or health separately as a Drell Vanguard has in both combined.

And as has been noted, different health and shield values, too. I found in the demo, a Krogan Soldier has nearly as much in either shields or health separately as a Drell Vanguard has in both combined.

Just got the Krogran Sentienal yesterday. The guy is a tank.

"Manure seems to be the most effective means of assassination."--Deadmonkeys

You can reset the talents of a character by either using a rare item from the Spectre packs or promoting it once it reaches level 20. (Confirmation needed: does this reset all characters of that class to one or how does it work?)

You can reset the talents of a character by either using a rare item from the Spectre packs or promoting it once it reaches level 20. (Confirmation needed: does this reset all characters of that class to one or how does it work?)

Just promoted one of my Soldiers, and it does indeed reset them all. Your levels are all class based, not tied to a particular character of that class.

I agree that Recruit packs aren't a bad idea starting out. I'm still using Mantis snipers and Katana shotguns even though I've unlocked a couple less common types in both categories. You definitely want to swear them off eventually, but I think they're a good way to get some quick equipment at the beginning.

It's probably true that buying Vet only - or heck, Spectre only - from the start is the fastest way to unlock everything. Myself, I preferred going for quick acquisition and level-up of basic weapons and mods. Not getting the rarer classes is really the only big downside IMO.

Crinkle, do you have any idea how the promotion to War Asset works in SP? Did it ask you to pick a campaign to apply the char to? Or do you think it's going to benefit any campaign you play from here on out?

Haven't followed the thread closely so I apologize if this has been posted. I was just linked to this, so if you're playing pub - host the games, just in case. (it's about time we get rid of p2p in games)

Haven't followed the thread closely so I apologize if this has been posted. I was just linked to this, so if you're playing pub - host the games, just in case. (it's about time we get rid of p2p in games)

Why don't they just remove all of the crap bought with the credits and zero his credits?

For something that can be forced upon you a straight up ban for first offense seems pretty bad.

Haven't followed the thread closely so I apologize if this has been posted. I was just linked to this, so if you're playing pub - host the games, just in case. (it's about time we get rid of p2p in games)

Why don't they just remove all of the crap bought with the credits and zero his credits?

For something that can be forced upon you a straight up ban for first offense seems pretty bad.

Or do like DICE does for some of these that are less egregious, just reset the account to zero. Think MS does the same thing with achievements.

Of course, we're only hearing one side of what he did. If you go to the 360 forums for when accounts get banned and reset, everybody there was minding their own business, too.